Tucson High School has had a particularly nasty curriculum, turning out a junior Tan Klan trained in Aztlan Studies, as indicated by the photo below, notable for the kids’ masks, revolutionary-brown outfits and Che-style berets (see Raza Racists Angered at Arizona’s Ethnic Studies Prohibitions).
Last year, Arizona legislators chose to end ethnic studies that promoted racism and hatred of America. Perhaps they became concerned at the sight of Raza-uniformed youngsters (see above) who mouthed the ideology of Hispanic victimhood at the hands of meanie white people, along with Mexican supremacy.
So it’s no longer legal for teachers to promote the overthrow of the US government in public schools. How annoying for Raza revolutionaries.
The experience of some Arizona schools illustrates what happens when Washington allows deeply hostile foreigners, who think they have a historical grievance against America, to settle in and take over local education infrastructure. Marxists have always targeted kids in schools.
A few decades ago, curricula that taught American values was the norm, as described in Victor Davis Hanson’s excellent remembrance of his school days, The Civic Education America Needs. But now the teaching of US history and culture is said to be discriminatory according to Raza Mexicans and other complainers.
A Hispanic teacher, John Ward, who worked in an afflicted school, wrote a 2008 op-ed (Raza studies gives rise to racial hostility), he said he ”refused to be complicit in a curriculum that engendered racial hostility, irresponsibly demeaned America’s civil institutions, undermined our public servants, discounted any virtues in Western civilization and taught disdain for American sovereignty.” He was interviewed on Fox News a few months ago.
Back to the current day: former state school superintendent Tom Horne, who led the fight against seditious ethnic studies, is now the Arizona Attorney General. He has deemed the Tucson school system in violation of the law and to get with the program or lose 10 percent of the school district’s budget. Raza supporters stand in opposition: Save Ethnic Studies.
Tom Horne: Tucson Unified School District runs afoul of ethnic studies law, The Arizona Republic, January 3, 2011State schools Superintendent Tom Horne says the Tucson Unified School District is violating a new state law intended to quash its ethnic-studies program, a breach he believes can only be remedied by doing away with Mexican-American studies.
Horne has scheduled a news conference today, hours before he officially leaves office to become the new state attorney general, to announce his findings.
He said his findings show the program he has long sought to eliminate runs afoul of the law’s requirement that classes cannot be ”designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group.”
”It is inherently designed for students of a particular ethnicity, and it’s got to stop,” Horne said Friday.
The very existence of the Mexican-American studies program violates the law, he said, and the only way the district can comply is to scrap it.
If school officials refuse, Horne said they should lose 10 percent of their state funding, as allowed under the law. That amounts to nearly $15 million for TUSD.
But that decision will rest with incoming state Superintendent John Huppenthal.
TUSD officials said their ethnic-studies programs comply with the new state law and plan to appeal Horne’s findings.
TUSD Superintendent John Pedicone said he hopes to reach an agreement with Huppenthal that would allow the courses to continue.
Under the law, the superintendent can unilaterally find a district in violation of the law and, subject to appeal, withhold up to 10 percent of funding.
The findings
Horne, a Republican, has been reviewing information on the district’s program for years.
He said comments from the school district’s faculty, textbooks and worksheets used in classes, and testimony during legislative hearings show the district’s ethnic studies violate all four criteria in House Bill 2281, passed by lawmakers and signed by Gov. Jan Brewer in May after three years of pressure from Horne.
In addition to prohibiting classes aimed at certain ethnic groups, the law also bans classes that advocate overthrow of the U.S. government, promote resentment toward a race or class or people, or advocate ethnic solidarity.
”It becomes the duty of the people of Arizona, through their elected leaders . . . to put a stop to this, and to be sure that taxpayer-funded public schools teach students to treat each other as individuals, and not on the basis of the race they happen to have been born into,” Horne said in a 10-page document to be released today. Although he acknowledges that TUSD’s Mexican-American studies program includes some non-Latinos, he said the percentage of Latinos enrolled is greater than the overall percentage of Latino students in schools that offer the classes.
That and an explanation of the program’s goal of ”increased academic achievement for Latino students” are enough to violate the law, he said.
”The district’s official description on its website leaves no room for doubt that the Mexican-American studies program is ”designed primarily’ for Hispanic students,” Horne wrote.
The response
Anticipating Horne’s action, TUSD board members held a special meeting Thursday, passing their third resolution on the issue that restates their support of the program and their commitment to abiding by the new law.
Board members sent a letter to Horne and Huppenthal calling for collaboration not legal action.
”TUSD holds fast to the belief that Arizona K-12 students, particularly in times of budget crises, are better served when educational entities seek to minimize the strain on human and financial resources by working together, rather than to expend said resources in conflict,” board president Judy Burns wrote.
Pedicone said the course covers injustice and oppression committed against Mexicans, just as African-American history includes slavery.
Through the curriculum, he said, students can understand how to overcome adversity and make a positive impact on society.
”This is a community issue,” he said.
Pedicone cited internal studies indicating that students who took Mexican-American studies scored higher on the AIMS test and were more than twice as likely to graduate and three times as likely to go on to college.
But Horne disputes the studies’ methodology and maintains that the classes provoke racism, encourage students to see themselves as oppressed and foment anti-social behavior.
One teacher said she believes the program led to resentfulness and disobedience from students, according to Horne’s report.
Another said he was called a racist by students and faculty after questioning the curriculum.
The program
TUSD’s Mexican-American studies program includes high-school class work about historical and contemporary Mexican-American contributions, social justice and stereotypes. Students may examine U.S. history from a Chicano perspective.
The program was first adopted as part of a desegregation order, which stemmed from a 1974 federal lawsuit by an African-American couple alleging racial bias. TUSD launched an African-American studies program and added Mexican-American studies in 1997.
Though the desegregation order was lifted in 2007, ethnic-studies programs were a key part of the settlement, and Pedicone said the district could be in violation if the classes are scrapped.
It’s unclear whether the new law will affect other programs or other school districts.
TUSD has 60 days to comply and dump Mexican-American studies or appeal to an administrative-law judge.
Pedicone said he hopes that won’t be necessary. He spoke with Huppenthal recently and said the district can reach a compromise with the new superintendent.
Huppenthal did not return a phone call seeking comment.
Losing state funding would be unacceptable, Pedicone said, particularly as schools already are coping with budget cuts.
”It’s a killer,” he said. ”It will cripple the district.”
